Yamaha Motor Europe has re-structured its Racing Management Organisation. Moving into a new role, Alexandre Kowalski will take on the title and responsibility of Yamaha Motor Europe Off-road Racing Manager, leading all Motocross and Rally operations. Alexandre brings two decades of experience as Marketing and Racing Division Manager in Yamaha Motor France, including the previous five years managing Yamaha Motor Europe’s Rally and Enduro programmes.

Current Yamaha Motor Europe MX Racing Manager Erik Eggens will remain in charge of MX racing operations, with a stronger focus on MXGP and MX2 classes. Expanding the team will be new member Thorsten Lentink, joining the Yamaha Motor Europe off-road team as MX Racing Coordinator. Thorsten will have the responsibility to focus on the EMX and Supported Team activities as well as ensuring the smooth running of the off-road bLU cRU programme.

Alberto Barozzi will move to a pure road racing function as Road Racing Supervisor, with a focus on coordination of WSSP600 and WSSP300 Supported Teams as well as the Road Racing bLU cRU programme, reporting to Yamaha Motor Europe Road Racing Manager, Andrea Dosoli.

Paolo Pavesio, Yamaha’s Manager of the Marketing and Motorsports Division, said: “We have continued to grow and develop our racing programmes across all road and off-road classes to ensure we have the strongest and most competitive presence at every level of competition where our production based-machines can race.

“With this refined structure in place, combining already seasoned Yamaha Racing management with fresh new blood, we are confident we can continue to provide unrivalled support for both teams and riders, from the feeder classes at the bottom of our racing pyramid, to the very pinnacle of our racing efforts. We place the same value and importance on our youngest bLU cRU riders as we do our Factory superstars, so we are delighted to head into what will be an exciting and highly competitive year of racing with maximum focus at all levels.”